This will be the first race
starting in the bay for over 50 years since the old sailing club moved. There
will be approximately 14 sailing boats racing, nine from Morrows Point and
five visiting yachts from Kinnego racing for the John Morrow Boxing Day
Shield and the fastest visiting boat also wins a special Boxing Day
Shield The race starts at Morrows Point at 12 noon 27th December. The
course is six miles start to finish which will be started by the officer of the day Paddy
Prunty. Prize giving afterwards in the clubhouse followed by Irish stew soup
and hot punch and an evenings entertainment to follows. Due to limited space
and draught racing is by invitation only. However visitors are welcome to watch
and enjoy the festivities.

The Christmas Ramble
along the Lagan Navigation was very well supported by members from both
N.Ireland Branches and indeed other IWAI branches.

V.P. Brian Cassells gave a series of very informative talks
at various points of interest during the ramble from Union Locks to Hilden
Brewery

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

LAGAN WALK 2002

DIVERSION to BENBURB

Welcome again to the Lagan Canal. Last year we
walked from Soldierstown to Aghalee at the Lough Neagh end of the canal, this
time we are on the Belfast stretch, at the flight of locks, numbers14 to 17.

The walk
which will take a little over an hour will take us firstly along the river,
under Moore’s Bridge, past the new
Lisburn Civic Centre and the restored lock 12, again
along the river, over the foot bridge, then through Hilden
housing estate and to the brewery for lunch. The brewery restaurant is known as
the tap room.

Sadly today
the canal is in two distinct stretches, Belfast to Sprucefield and Moira to
Lough Neagh. Our enlightened Politicians in the middle of the last century built
the M1 motorway on the bed of the canal from Sprucefield through to Moira. There
are plans at present to re-open the stretch from Lisburn through to Belfast,
indeed at present substantial funds have already been committed; a small deficit
remains to be found.

The Lagan
Canal is 27 miles long with 27 locks with 18 lock-keepers. Most of the
lock-keeper’s had only one lock to look after, though an exception was this
unique flight of four locks, 14 to 17 that you see here in front of you. The
lock-keepers lived in a lock house each with a small garden, all were designed
that the lock-keeper could see his lock from virtually any part of the house,
sadly only one of the lock-keeper’s houses on today’s stretch have survived,
that is it behind the fence in front of you. Money for building the canal came
from the the Marquis of Donegal and his family and from local taxation and
grants from the Dublin Parliament. The stretch from Belfast to Lisburn was
engineered by a Dutchman called Thomas Omer and work commenced in 1756. Omer had
previously worked on the Newry Navigation. The stretch from Belfast to Lisburn
largely consists of river navigation with short cuts of canal. One of the locks
on the navigation has already been restored, that at lock 12, opposite the new
Lisburn Civic Centre. This flight of locks here at
Sprucefield was designed by Richard Owen who was the engineer who took
the navigation on to Lough Neagh.

In 1820 it took 14 hours for a loaded lighter to
go from Belfast to Lisburn and
another 14 to reach Lough Neagh. A local anecdote at that time stated it took
the same time for a lighter to go from Belfast to Lough Neagh as it took for a
ship to sail to the West Indies!

This then was the flight of four locks and an
obvious hive of activity when the lighters were being manipulated through. These
locks lifted the barges 26 feet over a distance of 100 yards. Between two of the
locks there was a basin where boats could be held while another passed or where
the boats could stop temporarily. This was indeed a busy place, not only was
there this lock-keeper’s house but a carpenter’s workshop and stables for the
horses. Here too was the residence of the canal manager,
it is the red brick house behind the lock house, fronting on to the main
Lisburn road. This house has changed little over the
years and is still known as Navigation House. May Blair in her book “Once upon
the Lagan” tells a lovely story about a manager called George Lynch who was
appointed superintendent in 1909. His possessions were loaded onto a barge at
his old home in County Monaghan and
brought via the Ulster Canal, the River Blackwater,
Lough Neagh and the Lagan Canal to Lisburn. When the
barge reached Halliday’s Bridge, near the Maze,
Hughie Bann the bank ranger jumped on board and when
the family arrived at Sprucefield, he helped
to unload the barge.

The navigation company had a private phone system
which operated between Navigation House and the various lock-keepers cottages.
The number of rings corresponded to the number of the lock, one ring for Ellis
Gut, two for Aghagallon and so on. The disadvantage
of the system was that the bell rang in all the houses along the system. Wilson
Ward was the most notable lock-keeper here, though another family named
Richie were also residents. It was common place for
children to jump aboard here and beg a lift down to the next lock known as Becky
Hogg’s.

This then is the summit of the Lagan Canal, after this was a flat section, indeed
the next lock on the system is not until Aghalee.
The most successful stretch of the canal was the stretch from here to Lough
Neagh, the stretch to Belfast suffered from flooding problems and those
associated with a river navigation.

When we walk around the bend in the river we come
to Moore’s
Bridge, built in 1825 at a cost of £3000; this bridge carries the main
Lisburn to Hillsborough road.

Immediately after Moore’s bridge on the
right hand bank the river is joined by a tributary of the Lagan, known as the
Ravernet River.

The next lock downstream, which can still be seen
to the left hand side of the weir and on the right side of the path, was known
affectionately as Becky Hogg’s. The
Hogg family were lock-keeper’s there since the
1850’s and Becky was the wife of William, who died quite early in life. Sadly
here too the lockkeeper’s house has gone but the lock is still in reasonable
condition. The lock house was on waste ground to the left of the mill race.

This then is the new Civic Centre sitting on the
island site where the old Vitriol factory and latterly J.J.Richardson’s linen
factory stood. The river flows round the back of this building and this is the
newly restored cut, or canal section. You can see the new lock gates installed
at a cost of one million pounds with a set of flood gates at the upper end of
the chamber.

Lisburn
was without doubt the most important port on the navigation. Its harbour was
always a hive of activity. One of the most beautiful vessels to grace its
jetties was the “Lord Hertford,” a vessel of 60 tons that plied between Belfast
and Lisburn, this barge was the first to make the journey in 1763, effectively
opening the new navigation. On that occasion it carried numerous important
ladies and gentlemen who dined on board. We are told a band played on board
throughout the voyage and it was a beautiful sunny day. Alas Lisburn was also
the destination of the last barge which came to the island mill site here in
1954 with a load of coal. The town had nine quays, one was owned by the
navigation company and the other eight were privately owned. The majority of the
cargo handled was coal, for the adjacent gas works, though other cargoes
included linen, corn, flour, timber, farm produce etc. Tolls were charged on
cargoes but in 1813 to encourage greater use of the waterway it was decided to
waiver charges on potatoes, hay and straw, moving downstream. It is fair to say
one of the aims of building the Lagan Canal was to ensure the port of Belfast
would share in the success of the coal exports from the Tyrone coalfields, but
like the Newry Canal, more coal was carried upstream than downstream. Freight
rates were between 5s and 6s per barge and about 9d per ton, depending on the
cargo carried.

Lisburn
could also boast a dry dock erected by Henry Mulholland, a timber merchant. It
was said to be big enough for two to three lighters at any one time. The last
lighter brought there for repair was during the last war, in 1943. The family
associated more than any with Lisburn docks was that of the Hanna Family. John
Hanna was in charge of the quays while his brother James and his son Dick were
lock-keeper’s. Dick gave over sixty years service as a lock-keeper and is
reputed to have rescued over 20 people from drowning in the canal, a feat for
which he was awarded the Royal Humane Society Award. The navigation in Lisburn
is dominated by the Union Bridge. The present structure dates from 1880 and
replaced a number of earlier structures. The street names in this area are
testimony to the busy port area this once was.

The
walk finished in the courtyard of
Hilden House, a classic Georgian House built as the family home of
the Barbour family in the 1820’s. The Barbour’s were linen barons and carried on
the linen business in the mill which dominated this little hamlet of Hilden. This was
by any standards a huge operation, at a time the mill employed over 1500
workers. The factory had its own quay, largely for the delivery of coal and also
ran its own barges, the most notable being the “Nellie” and the “Eva”, named
after two of Barbour’s daughters. Barbour’s was not the only mill in the
district, other notable linen firms were Richardson Sons and
Owden and of course the factory
run by the Coulston family. The other
factory, located on the present site of the new Civic Centre was the Vitriol
Factory which eventually became another linen mill, known as J
J Richardson’s. Relationships between the linen
barons and the canal operators were often fraught with difficulty; usually
disputes were concerning water extraction.

Hilden
Lock beside the old factory, is referred to
locally as Scott’s lock. Lock-keeper’s who attended the lighters here over the
years were McAlice, Smyth and
McPoland. Associated with most of the locks on this stretch was a weir,
the lock-keeper’s were also responsible for the maintenance and water level at
each weir.

The Lagan navigation was a reasonably successful
enterprise, but the company were persuaded to take over the Ulster Canal and this proved a drain on its
finances. That then is another story for the Ulster always suffered from a lack
of water and because the locks were built to narrower and shorter dimensions.
After the outbreak of World War 11, traffic began to decline. Competition from
the railways and the improved road network were just too much. In 1954 the
stretch from here to Lough Neagh was officially abandoned and in 1958 the
stretch from here to Belfast fell too. Sadly the abandonment went virtually
unnoticed by the general public. The rest is history, perhaps if we had
enthusiasts as interested then, as you are today, who knows what would have
happened!

The Galleries below contain photographs from the Coalisland Canal walk on the 12th June 2002. The walk was organised by the Friends of The Coalisland Canal and was well supported by members of both N.Ireland branches and members of the local community. The talk afterwards in the Cornmill by Mr.
Michael Pollard on the Tyrone Coalfields was very interesting and informative.This is the first of a series of talks of local interest which the Coalisland and District Historical Society intend to hold in the coming months. The Tyrone Coalfields were the main reason for the building of the Coalisland Canal.